When did the middle finger become offensive?

[dipsydoodle]

An American television network has apologised after pop star M.I.A. extended her middle finger during Sunday night's Super Bowl halftime show. What does the gesture mean, and when did it become offensive?

A public intellectual, expressing his contempt for a gas-bag politician, reaches for a familiar gesture. He extends his middle finger and declares: "This is the great demagogue".

The episode occurred not on a chat show nor in the salons of New York or London, but in Fourth Century BC Athens, when the philosopher Diogenes told a group of visitors exactly what he thought about the orator Demosthenes, according to a later Greek historian.

The middle finger, extended with the other fingers held beneath the thumb, is thus documented to have expressed insult and belittlement for more than two millennia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16916263

[Tx4obama]

1. More than fifty years ago. n/t

[Syrinx]

2. she's kind of pretty, but I'm not real keen on someone who's slogan is "give war a chance"

I think she's a dimwit or worse. She supports terrorism. Hot or not? Not. She needs to get over herself.

I don't give a shit about her middle finger. That's pretty silly.

But her support of killing innocent people, that's kind of a negative in my view.

[Surya Gayatri]

3. Gotta love the Beeb! An intellectual

and historical look at the "fickel finger of fate"...
Only the Beeb could pull this off without appearing pompous and pretentious.
SG

Thanks for posting stuff from the Beeb, dd.

[TheMastersNemesis]

5. Historical Meaning Of The Middle Finger

Historically the middle finger was a gesture used in battle. If the combatant was an archer, the enemy would cut off the index finger so the archer could not shoot his bow in the future. Without the index finger and middle finger an archer cannot draw back his bow and hold an arrow in place. In battles before guns, the archer could have a devastating effect firing at least 200 yards over enemy lines. Thousands of arrows falling from the skies could decimate armies before they got into combat range.

Somehow showing the middle finger was shown as an offensive sign at the enemy as a result of this practice. I believe that the gesture originated from battles between the French and English armies.

Over time the gesture obvious has taken on a different meaning.

[Botany]

7. The Battle of Agincourt

Battle of Agincourt is where it was supposed to have started.

[TheMastersNemesis]

8. Thanks That Sounds Right

What a ghoulish strategy that was. Sounds like something the GOP would do people.

[Rochester]

9. Nice story, but only a legend

Debunked by Snopes http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.asp

[xchrom]

6. Diogenes! You rascal. Nt